Huskers vent, get fired up in team meeting
As Matt Slauson understood it, Sunday’s meeting was supposed to last about 10 minutes.
It was figured Coach would talk a bit and players would stare embarrassed-like at the ground while Coach talked.
But this meeting was different. Players kept randomly standing up to say something.
Call it Chicken Soup for the Husker Soul.
Voices raised until 45 minutes had passed.
“It was definitely an emotional meeting,” said Slauson, the junior offensive lineman. “It really got a lot of guys juiced up, jazzed up, ready to roll.”
It started with a question from Husker coach Bill Callahan.
“Coach went in there and asked a couple of guys, ‘Who do we play for?’” cornerback Zackary Bowman said. “Mostly everybody said they play for their teammates, their coaches, their families, and the state of Nebraska.
“It was something that we needed.”
According to Bowman, no captains spoke, but Husker quarterback Sam Keller did.
“He stood up and said that we gave him life and he’s been working his butt off ever since he’s been here … and he wants to improve and get better,” Bowman said.
But the voices went beyond Keller’s.
“Guys who grew up watching Nebraska football and always wanted to play here and stuff,” Bowman said.
Guys like Thomas Rice, a senior defensive end from Lincoln East who came into this year having never seen the field in a college game, made their voices heard.
“Guys just started getting up and getting pumped up, and I started getting pumped up, because it really got me thinking how close our team really is and how much guys really do care,” Slauson said.
For a few moments, in that room, optimism prevailed.
The thing about optimism, though, is that it can’t tackle a running back. It can’t rush a passer. It can’t take away a 41-6 loss to Missouri on Saturday.
You could have 10 team meetings and still not erase that embarrassment.
It was a loss that rattled Huskerland to its core.
You didn’t have to look far for disgruntled talk about the football team. You started to hear weird conversations with foreign sentences like, “You think they’ll win another game this year?” or “Is the home sellout streak in jeapordy?”
On Tuesday, Callahan came to the weekly press conference swinging from his first sentence.
Before a question was asked, he said: “I think it’s important to understand that no one, and I mean no one wants to win more than I do. And I think it’s really important to understand that we as a staff, and as a program, and as a team, hate to lose.
“And it’s important to know that it destroys us emotionally to go through what we did the last week. It hurts us. We’re disappointed, but nonetheless, we’ve got to move on and we got to move on in a hurry.”
At one point, he used the word “urgency.” His team needs to play with urgency.
“I’ve got hope that our players will respond, I really do,” Callahan said. “I have belief and conviction that they’ll do real well, but you know, you got to prove it. Talk is cheap. You have to go out and do it.”
The critics have said plenty, but among the more popular sayings is that this team lacks fire.
“There is a little truth to it,” Slauson said. “Fans always come up and say, ‘You guys just look like you aren’t playing with any passion or heart.’ I think there’s a little confusion right now in our game, and I’m not sure why. I can’t explain it. But if you’re confused about it, you’re not going to play as fast as you can and you’re not going to have as much fun as you should.”
Husker sophomore linebacker Phillip Dillard, one of the brighter spots on the defense this year, said he thinks sometimes guys are too worried about messing up, overthinking instead of acting on instinct.
“Some plays, I might be confused, I’m not going to lie,” Dillard said. “You can see it on film because you’re hesitant. And when you’re hesitant, that’s not good.”
Is the defense too complicated?
“No, it’s not because the D’s too complicated,” he said. “It’s just you’re probably thinking about something that happened in the last play, or they’re in a formation and you’re thinking, ‘Well, they run three things out of this formation’ and the mind starts boggling.”
Husker senior linebacker Bo Ruud calls it “reacting instead of acting.”
Too much of it going on, he agrees.
He said it’s lack of execution, not lack of preparation, that’s got this team down. Ruud would bet there’s not a team in the country that prepares better than Nebraska.
He also thinks that “lack of fire” claim by people is a bunch of rubbish.
“That has nothing to do with us,” he said. “I’ve never done anything different since the day I’ve been here. I’ve never decided to not have fire.”
Whatever is lacking, Slauson knows it must be figured out this week against Oklahoma State.
Though the season is just six games old, he admits it’s already been draining in some respects.
A loss to the Cowboys and things could really get ugly.
“This next game is the biggest game of our lives right now,” he said. “We’ve not been playing Nebraska ball. … This game is going to be the turnaround game.”
Keller said the team needs to try to get back to loving football and enjoying each other this week.
They can’t worry about the outside criticism.
“Our backs are a little bit against the wall,” Keller said. “We had a horrible performance and we have to respond. And you can’t respond by feeling pressure, you can’t respond by feeling sorry for yourself.
“You have to respond by knowing that you’re here for a reason, knowing you’re a good ballplayer, and knowing that we have a good team and we have confidence in each other.”
Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7439 or bchristopherson@journalstar.com.
It was figured Coach would talk a bit and players would stare embarrassed-like at the ground while Coach talked.
But this meeting was different. Players kept randomly standing up to say something.
Call it Chicken Soup for the Husker Soul.
Voices raised until 45 minutes had passed.
“It was definitely an emotional meeting,” said Slauson, the junior offensive lineman. “It really got a lot of guys juiced up, jazzed up, ready to roll.”
It started with a question from Husker coach Bill Callahan.
“Coach went in there and asked a couple of guys, ‘Who do we play for?’” cornerback Zackary Bowman said. “Mostly everybody said they play for their teammates, their coaches, their families, and the state of Nebraska.
“It was something that we needed.”
According to Bowman, no captains spoke, but Husker quarterback Sam Keller did.
“He stood up and said that we gave him life and he’s been working his butt off ever since he’s been here … and he wants to improve and get better,” Bowman said.
But the voices went beyond Keller’s.
“Guys who grew up watching Nebraska football and always wanted to play here and stuff,” Bowman said.
Guys like Thomas Rice, a senior defensive end from Lincoln East who came into this year having never seen the field in a college game, made their voices heard.
“Guys just started getting up and getting pumped up, and I started getting pumped up, because it really got me thinking how close our team really is and how much guys really do care,” Slauson said.
For a few moments, in that room, optimism prevailed.
The thing about optimism, though, is that it can’t tackle a running back. It can’t rush a passer. It can’t take away a 41-6 loss to Missouri on Saturday.
You could have 10 team meetings and still not erase that embarrassment.
It was a loss that rattled Huskerland to its core.
You didn’t have to look far for disgruntled talk about the football team. You started to hear weird conversations with foreign sentences like, “You think they’ll win another game this year?” or “Is the home sellout streak in jeapordy?”
On Tuesday, Callahan came to the weekly press conference swinging from his first sentence.
Before a question was asked, he said: “I think it’s important to understand that no one, and I mean no one wants to win more than I do. And I think it’s really important to understand that we as a staff, and as a program, and as a team, hate to lose.
“And it’s important to know that it destroys us emotionally to go through what we did the last week. It hurts us. We’re disappointed, but nonetheless, we’ve got to move on and we got to move on in a hurry.”
At one point, he used the word “urgency.” His team needs to play with urgency.
“I’ve got hope that our players will respond, I really do,” Callahan said. “I have belief and conviction that they’ll do real well, but you know, you got to prove it. Talk is cheap. You have to go out and do it.”
The critics have said plenty, but among the more popular sayings is that this team lacks fire.
“There is a little truth to it,” Slauson said. “Fans always come up and say, ‘You guys just look like you aren’t playing with any passion or heart.’ I think there’s a little confusion right now in our game, and I’m not sure why. I can’t explain it. But if you’re confused about it, you’re not going to play as fast as you can and you’re not going to have as much fun as you should.”
Husker sophomore linebacker Phillip Dillard, one of the brighter spots on the defense this year, said he thinks sometimes guys are too worried about messing up, overthinking instead of acting on instinct.
“Some plays, I might be confused, I’m not going to lie,” Dillard said. “You can see it on film because you’re hesitant. And when you’re hesitant, that’s not good.”
Is the defense too complicated?
“No, it’s not because the D’s too complicated,” he said. “It’s just you’re probably thinking about something that happened in the last play, or they’re in a formation and you’re thinking, ‘Well, they run three things out of this formation’ and the mind starts boggling.”
Husker senior linebacker Bo Ruud calls it “reacting instead of acting.”
Too much of it going on, he agrees.
He said it’s lack of execution, not lack of preparation, that’s got this team down. Ruud would bet there’s not a team in the country that prepares better than Nebraska.
He also thinks that “lack of fire” claim by people is a bunch of rubbish.
“That has nothing to do with us,” he said. “I’ve never done anything different since the day I’ve been here. I’ve never decided to not have fire.”
Whatever is lacking, Slauson knows it must be figured out this week against Oklahoma State.
Though the season is just six games old, he admits it’s already been draining in some respects.
A loss to the Cowboys and things could really get ugly.
“This next game is the biggest game of our lives right now,” he said. “We’ve not been playing Nebraska ball. … This game is going to be the turnaround game.”
Keller said the team needs to try to get back to loving football and enjoying each other this week.
They can’t worry about the outside criticism.
“Our backs are a little bit against the wall,” Keller said. “We had a horrible performance and we have to respond. And you can’t respond by feeling pressure, you can’t respond by feeling sorry for yourself.
“You have to respond by knowing that you’re here for a reason, knowing you’re a good ballplayer, and knowing that we have a good team and we have confidence in each other.”
Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7439 or bchristopherson@journalstar.com.
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